How does it feel to receive the COVID-19 vaccine? I looked to find out

A pulmonary and intensive care physician, Friedenberg’s job in recent months has been to save the lives of COVID-19 patients in the intensive care unit at Kaiser Permanente San Francisco. She saw death. At the height of the outbreak in New York City, she was among the Bay Area medics who flew across the country to help. Upon arrival, Friedenberg was assigned 16 COVID-19 patients.

“I killed two people in the first two hours of my first day,” she said, crying. “I didn’t even know who they were. Who is the family of this patient? Who are their children? Wow, that person is gone and I can barely remember their name. And then it was just moving on to the next thing. very sad.”

On Thursday, Friedenberg was among nine people I watched have their Pfizer-BioNTech photograph taken at Kaiser San Francisco. It was touching, with many tears of joy and after someone was vaccinated others were cheering and cheering. Many have called their families and posted selfies on social media to share their news. In this room you had the feeling that the vaccine was a miracle and being among the first to get an injection was like winning the lottery or crossing the finish line in a marathon.

Kaiser San Francisco is among dozens of hospitals across California that have implemented the Pfizer vaccine in recent days, which has been shown to have strong protection against the virus in massive international trials. The state is expected to distribute 327,000 injections in the first batch, and with the second Moderna vaccine, it is expected to receive approval for emergency use from the Food and Drug Administration as early as Friday, roughly 2.1 million shots could be fired in California by the end of December. The two vaccines are given in two doses with Pfizer 21 days apart and Moderna 28 days apart.

Many people say COVID-19 vaccine hurts less than this year’s flu shot

But how does it feel to get the shot and have the needle in your arm?

“I didn’t feel anything,” said Jammy Payne, a nurse from Kaiser who cares for COVID patients in the ICU.

Everyone I asked said basically the same thing.

“It hurts less than the flu shot,” said Dr. Candace Shavit, Kaiser anesthesiologist. “It was very minimal. If I hadn’t watched, I wouldn’t have known he gave the injection.”

“It looked like a regular vaccine,” said Dr Jonathan Kenyon, an emergency doctor from Kaiser who treats a growing number of coronavirus patients in the emergency room.

Vaccines are usually not painful, and the thought of a needle going through the skin is often more uncomfortable than the injection itself.

If you experience a sting or pain after the injection, Dr. Jonathan Volk, infectious disease expert at Kaiser, said that was actually a positive sign. The purpose of inoculation is to trigger an immune response, and inflammation at the injection site means the process is taking place.

“The side effects are a good thing,” Volk said. “It shows that our body is developing an immune response. You can have a little muscle inflammation. It tends to be short-lived, 12 to 24 hours.”

As with any vaccine, injections of Pfizer and Moderna may cause temporary discomfort. Along with a sore arm, common side effects are fever and flu-like symptoms, including fatigue, body aches, chills, and headache.

I thought healthcare workers would say getting the shot didn’t hurt, so I also talked to people who hadn’t got over their fears about needles in med school or nursing school.

Reina Lopez works in concierge services at UCSF and cleans patient rooms. Lopez was vaccinated on Wednesday and she doesn’t like needles.

“I’m still nervous,” she said. “I always turn my face when I get the vaccine.”

As for the shots, she said this one was a snap.

“Honestly, I didn’t feel anything,” Lopez said. “He walked in so gently. Afterwards, I felt some liquid inside. You know how you feel a little lump. It didn’t bleed or anything. Today my arm was painful. The flu shot hurt more on day one. a no. “

Susana Aguilar, who works in the reception services of the COVID wing at Kaiser’s Hospital in San Francisco, was vaccinated Thursday and had the same reaction.

“No pain at all,” Aguilar said. “I feel good.”

COVID-19 vaccine looks like any other vaccine

The needle is fine, about the width of a hair from a ponytail. Its length is roughly the distance from the tip of your thumb to your upper joint – one inch.

The COVID-19 vaccine is like any other typical vaccine given intramuscularly with a needle in the arm.

Injecting the needle takes less than three seconds. I counted that all nine shots had been given to Kaiser and that I never got to three.

In the United States, vaccinees are expected to wait about 15 minutes after the injection in case any signs of allergy appear and they need immediate treatment. At Kaiser, no one had any issues, and the FDA says massive studies on each one did not reveal any major safety risks. In rare cases, people with pre-existing allergies have had more serious reactions.

Jammy Payne only felt great relief after being vaccinated on Thursday. On the front line of the pandemic since March, the intensive care nurse was treating Kaiser’s first COVID-19 patient when she learned he was positive.

“It was alarming,” she says. “He was intubated on a ventilator. I’m not sure what happened to him. We transferred him to a higher level of care.”

For her, the vaccine could not have arrived soon enough and she only hopes that everyone will welcome her with the sleeves rolled up over their shoulders.

“It is important to protect your community,” she said. “We’re better together.”